BOX SCORE
MONTREALThey had a six-game winning streak on the line. They also had the NHLs best road record11-3-1.
Neither mattered Thursday night at Bell Centre for the Flyers because what they didnt have was Chris Pronger, their top defenseman, and wont get him back until next season.
Pronger is done for the year with post-concussion syndrome (see story). Given the stunning news, the game itself seemed inconsequential, though the Flyers won, 4-3.
Lets separate the two because thats important, coach Peter Laviolette said. It was not an easy game. Those guys in the room deserve a tremendous amount of credit for the way they played, the way they competed and they fought for a win.
That shouldnt be taken lightly. Montreal had gotten points in six straight. To come up here and battle and keep things moving in the right direction, Im really happy with what we did here.
With regard to Chris, certainly the news is not what we wanted and its hard to replace a guy like that. You cant. He plays 26-27 minutes. Theres no one person or one individual in the organization you can find somewhere and replace him with.
NHL
Weve been moving forward for a while here without Chris and recently without Claude Giroux. Those injuries are tough to take, but our team has responded really well. Its evident in the way we play. Thats evident in the fact we continue to win hockey games.
The Flyers are now 12-4-1 without Pronger in the lineup.
Virtually all the players were unaware of the Pronger announcement until informed by the media after the game. Laviolette knew in advance but didn't want to distract them by saying anything before the game.
Jaromi Jagr was pretty much invisible in this one, but his third-period assist led to Andrej Meszaros goal from the blue line at 8:08, breaking a 3-3 deadlock.
The goal was just Meszaros third of the season.
We kept pushing and they kept coming back, Meszaros said. We just scored one more than them. It was a team effort and thats the way we need to play now. We did that in Washington, too. We knew we didnt play our best game but we won.
The Flyers survived this game because of their penalty killing, shutting down the Habs on eight of their nine power plays.
We took too many penalties, Meszaros said. You dont want to see that but its going to happen. Everybody stepped up. They had one lucky power-play goal on a bounce, but thats going to happen.
Sergie Bobrovsky made his first start in goal since losing to the Rangers 2-0 on Nov. 26.
The first period unfolded as expected with both clubs trading some good scoring chances. The Flyers had two power plays and made good after the first one expired with Max Talbot one-timing a pass from the left circle past Carey Price at 12:07.
The Flyers were 0 for 6 in the game on the power play but had chances.
Incredibly, Talbots goal stood up even though the Flyers spent the final three minutes of the period shorthanded by two men.
Rookie defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon was nailed for slashing, then Jakub Voracek went off for tripping, giving the Habs a 5-on-3 for 1:41.
It appeared as though Tomas Plekanec tied the game with a backhander off a rebound, but the goal was quickly waved off because Erik Cole interfered with Bobrovsky.
Though the Flyers dodged that bullet, Braydon Coburn then picked up a cross-checking penalty giving the Habs another two-man edge for 32 seconds.
Again, the Flyers penalty killers, led by Talbot, Matt Carle and Kimmo Timonen, held the Canadiens off. The second period began with Montreal still on the power play but with just a single-man advantage.
Again, the Flyers killed it off.
Soon after, however, Montreals David Desharnais tied it at 5:02, skating the puck behind the net, then ragging it as he swung into the high slot waiting for Cole and Max Pacioretty to screen out Bobrovsky before firing. No way Bob could have seen the shot.
No matter. The Flyers went ahead 46 seconds later on their next rush up ice.
Harry Zolnierczyk poked home a rebound off a Carle point shot with Zac Rinaldo causing havoc in the crease to make it, 2-1.
Zolnierczyk was shifting between center and wing in this game. It was just Harry Zs second goal of the season. Both of them have come in Canada. His first NHL goal came Oct. 18 in Ottawa, the night he made his league debut.
Zolnierczyks goal celebration was simplypriceless, too.
Montreal got it back at 13:24 when Louis Leblanc got a rather fortunate bounce his direction after Bobrovsky made an initial save on Mike Blunden.
It didnt stay that way for long as Wayne Simmonds tallied a goal for the fourth straight game to regain the lead for the Flyers at 3-2, knocking his own rebound out of the air past Price at 18:10.
Yet, Montreal would not go away easily with Cole scoring on the power play in the final 16 ticks of the period to make it 3-3.
Coles wrister set up another tense third period on the road for the Flyers.
Thats a team that refuses to lose, Laviolette said. We had to kill a lot of penalties tonight. A lot of things were working against us.
To be able to finish that off in the third period and get the win speaks volumes to the players in the room and their attitude. Their dedication to win a hockey game was awesome, just awesome.
Loose pucks
It was a tough night for Flyer rookie center Sean Couturier, who had three penalties in the game. All of them were of the stick variety, which is odd given his superb speed. ... Jagr has nine points in seven games this month.Carle had three assists. ... Danny Briere centered Rinaldo and Zolnierczyk on Harry Zs goal. ... The Flyers' seven-game win streak is the longest they have strung together since an eight-game streak from Jan. 6-19, 2002.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net.